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How difficult is difficult? Speech perception in noise in the elderly hearing impaired
Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology
|August 26, 2014
Summary
Elderly individuals with hearing loss struggle with understanding speech in noisy environments. Even with hearing aids, older adults experience significant difficulties in multitalker settings, indicating limitations in current compensation strategies.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Gerontology
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Sensory hearing loss, particularly in the elderly, impairs speech perception in multitalker noise.
- Existing hearing aid technologies often inadequately address these challenges for older adults.
- Difficulties in speech comprehension in noise are a common complaint among the elderly hearing impaired.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the processing of competing speech signals in older adults with hearing impairment.
- To quantify the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss experienced by elderly hearing-impaired individuals.
- To assess performance in dichotic listening tests among older hearing-impaired individuals.
Main Methods:
- Assessed speech identification in multitalker babble noise.
- Conducted dichotic listening tests.
- Compared older hearing-impaired adults with young normal-hearing adults.
Main Results:
- Elderly participants showed significantly lower average dichotic scores compared to younger adults.
- A significant right ear advantage was observed in the elderly group during dichotic listening.
- Speech identification in noise was significantly poorer in the older group, with an average SNR loss of 10 dB.
Conclusions:
- Poor performance underscores the challenges elderly hearing-impaired individuals face in demanding auditory environments.
- Results suggest limitations in fully understanding speech in multitalker settings, even with hearing aid use.
- Current hearing aid technology may not sufficiently overcome the speech-in-noise deficits in older adults.
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